HSH 086 Instagram For The Rest Of Us With Jasmine Star – Show Notes

I’m super pumped to be bringing you this episode, not only because it’s the first time we’ve had a guest on the show in awhile, but because it’s with Jasmine Star (who is an absolute social media maven)! If you’re on Instagram and maybe have some followers but aren’t quite sure what you’re supposed to be doing, this show is for you. Jasmine is giving practical steps you can take now to position yourself not only Instagram, but on social media in general, so that you can get more customers, more clients and more results!

In 2005 Jasmine decided that law school wasn’t for her and she decided to give up her full scholarship. It was on her wedding day that she realized that she really wanted to be a photographer, and she started her first business in 2006. By 2007 it had exploded and in 2009 she was named one of the top photographers in the entire world! Now she empowers people to find their own voices, be themselves and really grow a business on social media the way that she did.

Originally blogging was Jasmine’s platform of choice, and it was through blogging that people became connected to her journey. She now considers Facebook her platform of choice when it comes to business, but she spends more of her personal time on Instagram (and studies show that she is not alone)!

Jasmine admits that she will use whatever platform is hot at the time, but she’s on all of them now and builds a following on each one. She diversifies her social media endeavours to ensure that she’s not reliant on one platform.

Her three steps for the “average” Instagram user are:

1. Focus on consistency

Look at your social media platforms like a garden. Tend to them, water them, and they will grow!

2. Don’t blame the algorithm for anything

The algorithm is your friend, if you choose to see it that way, and it rewards users regardless of the size of their audience by showing the good and engaging content to followers.

3. Put yourselves in the shoes of your customer

In order to do this you ultimately must know who your customer is and why they are on Instagram. Jasmine recommends going through your hashtags and breaking them down into different sections that cater to finding your ideal customers in unsuspecting places. You must carve your content to point it back to what you do by making it relevant to what your dream customer is looking for. By spending time doing this on the front end, the rest you will get by momentum!

You don’t need a big budget to take nice pictures for Instagram, and there are varying degrees of professionalism that you can show up with online – from taking an image with your smartphone to investing in a professional photographer to take the photos. Regardless of what budget you choose to spend, it’s up to you to show up the way that you want to online.

In the next week someone looking to grow their Instagram following can write each day of the week on a piece of paper and beneath each, list a post to put out on Instagram. It doesn’t have to be about your business, but it should be attracting your dream customer. You can get all of your content for a week prepared in just one day and spread it out if you are thinking in advance.

For Jasmine, the word “hustle” means getting to determine what she wants to do, how she does it and with whom she does it with (always making sure she is happy along the way)!